Klangkarussell have just announced another Dublin date for March 2017 after their recent Metropolis afterparty show in Opium Rooms. We caught up with the Austrian duo in a smokey green room before they took to the Wexford St. venue stage.

Q. Where are you guys based now?

A. In Vienna but we’re originally from Salzburg.

Q. Is there a good dance music scene in Vienna?

A. It’s quite strong, particularly for a small country. It’s really good in Vienna.

Q. What are your club closing hours?

A. It’s different. It depends; usually its 6am in Vienna, but some clubs can stay open. They just need to stop the entrance for an hour.

Q. How do you feel about the early closing hours in Dublin?

A. It’s always a shitty position to be the guy who stops the music. It’s always very bad. Usually we don’t stop it and we get someone to come and stop it for us. So it’s clear to the people that it’s not us stopping.

Q. When your song Sonnentanz hit the charts were you surprised?

A. Shocked, no, but we also didn’t expect it. It was very surreal, very surreal.

Q. Did having a mainstream hit track change the way you make music?

A. You know when we started to do music it was a different situation. We were working jobs just to get some money and music was more like a thing to help you retreat from your daily life. You’re not as into it and finishing stuff is more because it’s fun doing it. Then it shifted more towards a work situation.

Q. What was it like to have your day job become making music?

A. It was a dream come true.

Q. Did the label give you freedom to go in your own direction?

A. The label is really, really easy with music. They don’t say anything about music; they just let you do it. But then they’ll tell you no (laughs)…

Q. Did you notice a change in the audiences coming to see you after Sonnentanz?

A. Yep, but it strongly depends on markets. In Germany we are much more popular and we go to more commercial parties. They want to hear Sonnentanz you know they want to hear hits, music they know. They’re not interested in some types of techno. But if you go to a different market, for example here in Dublin or Italy, because they have so many commercial clubs already, the people who come to your parties are still more underground people. They come because they love music and they love to dance.

Q. Are you sick of playing ‘that’ song?

A. I feel like it’s a bit shit if artists feel like ‘no I don’t want to play my song anymore’ you know people expect to hear your songs so…

Q. Recently we have seen more DJs and people in the industry come out and talk about their mental health issues. Is that something you have ever struggled with?

A. Well we took a step back last year. We had a break from March to October and we didn’t tour anything. We just did a couple of shows because they two years before that we had been touring so much that it just became really heavy, it was really rough and it was like we need to step back and have a little off time.

I think it’s not just about DJs, you know? It’s a thing in our society, the pressure, the burn out. People need that mental health. Get a life coach or go to therapy or whatever is best for you but you need to figure it out.

Q. You have another tour coming up in December?

A. Yeah, every other weekend we have shows.

Q. What’s the plan for after that?

A. We’re currently writing our second record which is nearly finished and we are going to go on tour next spring too.

Q. When can we expect to see that release?

A. Probably in summer on Vertigo Records which is part of Universal. Then we’re going to do a DJ tour. In spring we’re going to do festivals and then in autumn we’re going to do another live tour!

Q. Do you prefer playing live?

A. I do. I think it’s nice if you have more people on the road. The touring is nice because you’re on a bus and you’re surrounded by people and it’s easy. You can’t miss your flight and shit like that.

On the bus you sleep, you wake up and you’re in another city. What I like is the balance of it because like some songs we like are not for a club environment. They’re more for music to listen to at home. With the live sets we can just play our music and it fits and then with the DJ sets we can go deeper and more techno.

Q. Have you got a favourite ever gig?

A. Iceland was really good.

Q. What made it so good?

A. Eh….. they put us in prison right before it (laughing). We came from America and we smoked on the plane because we drank too much. Well we can’t remember… When we landed everything was fucked and I woke up in prison, it’s the only thing I can remember. We can look back and laugh at it now. It helped to create a really nice atmosphere because everyone was like ‘woah they’re real rockstars’ (laughing).. So the energy in the room was amazing! Yeah actually it was just clever marketing…

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